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What will happen to Modi?

By Neena Vyas

PANAJI APRIL 11. Stiff resistance from the Bharatiya Janata Party's Uttar Pradesh unit is holding up the formation of a BJP-Bahujan Samaj Party government in the State, senior BJP leaders indicated here today.

The view is that the party should try to ``persuade the State unit to accept the inevitability of the BSP leader, Mayawati, becoming the chief minister, for the third time, with the support of the BJP.

Talking informally to reporters, the BJP leaders who arrived here this afternoon ahead of the party's three-day executive committee meeting starting tomorrow, said the stiff resistance, especially from the former Chief Minister, Rajnath Singh, was delaying the government formation.

It is becoming increasingly clear that at the central level the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, are keen on a coalition BJP-BSP government in Lucknow. But many senior party leaders here are aware that over the years the political space of the BJP in U.P. has shrunk as a result of repeated cohabitation with the BSP. A third time would surely finish the party, some leaders argued.

It remains to be seen what Mr. Rajnath Singh has to say when the U.P. electoral defeat comes up for reporting and discussion, possibly on April 13.

A senior leader in the Government, who did not want to say this on record, was quite optimistic about a Mayawati led and BJP supported government, but he warned that as yet the path had not been cleared, as stiff resistance continues from within the party.

The other major political issue will be the fate of the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi.

If several speakers demand that he be thrown out, that would be a signal that perhaps the Prime Minister himself wants to sack him. But first he may want to hear the demand being articulated from within the party.

The BJP does not want to be seen to be giving in under pressure from the opposition and the allies.

Gujarat is virtually the last major State still ruled by the BJP apart from Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand and Mr Modi was sent there in the hope that he would revive the party's falling popularity. But the manner in which he has ``consolidated the Hindu votes has left even some in this party shocked.

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